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IBM Japan has announced the PowerPC 970MP, a dual-core 64-bit PowerPC processor. Each core has a 1MB L2 cache, they run fast, they consume less power, and if you can read Japanese then the press release will be more meaningful for you. Update: the IBM US press release.

IBM recently announced it found another customer for Cell technology: Mercury Computer Systems, which works with medical and military devices. It’s unclear if Mercury will be purchasing the same processor destined for the PlayStation 3, or instead will work with IBM to develop custom processors for their applications. Mercury’s website has a special section regarding the Cell announcement. (Coincidentally, Mercury Computer Systems is the company that recently acquired Momentum Computer, maker of the 970FX development board.)

There is a new wiki up for PowerPC Linux users. From the site: “It is primarily oriented at the IBM OpenPower, JS20 and p5 systems, but topics covering embedded 32-bit based PowerPC systems as well as Apple systems are also welcome.” Users with some free time might want to check it out and add any bits of PowerPC Linux information that could help others.

Genesi has put out a press release with some details on their Home Theater system, which won Best of Show at Freescale Technology Forum. They also have introduced an MPC5200-processor evaluation board called the EFIKA 5K2; more details are not yet available.

IBM developerWorks has posted some additional information about the kernel modifications to exploit the SPE coprocessors on Cell, including the programming model, inter-processor communication, and the filesystem designed to let userspace control SPE execution. Even more interesting is a lengthy interview with Arnd Bergmann, the kernel maintainer for Linux on Cell. Among other things, he tells us that talk of a Cell processor workstation may have just been a misunderstanding about the recently shown blade prototype.

Deep within the 2005 GCC Summit proceedings one can find the paper Ulrich Weigand is scheduled to present tomorrow, titled “Porting the GNU Tool Chain to the Cell Architecture.” It focuses mostly on the “SPE” coprocessors (Synergistic Processing Engines), which use a new instruction set, but also mentions pipelining on the (in-order) PowerPC core. The Linux interface to the SPEs is also covered, and much time is devoted to the GDB debugger.

Genesi, makers of the Pegasos PowerPC motherboard, have been awarded Best of Show at the Freescale Technology Forum. The winning demonstration was an Open Source home media center fanless system built around the MPC7447 processor, which was judged according to technical merit, market impact, practical application and coolness.

At the Freescale Technology Forum this week, Freescale demonstrated its new 7448 (“G4”) processor, due to reach full production in October. It is expected to run up to 1.7 GHz and consume around 10 watts, and will be offered with the Tundra Tsi108 system controller in the HPC II reference design.